CAUTION: PLEASE NOTE THAT THE AC OUTPUT CONNECTIONS AND THE DC
INPUT CONNECTIONS ON THESE INVERTERS ARE NOT CONECTED
(BONDED) TO THE METAL CHASSIS OF THE INVERTER. BOTH THE
INPUT AND OUTPUT CONNECTIONS ARE ISOLATED FROM THE
METAL CHASSIS AND FROM EACH OTHER SYSTEM GROUNDIN G,
AS REQUIRED BY NATIONAL / LOCAL ELECTRICAL CODES / STANDARDS,
IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE USER / SYSTEM INSTALLER
Grounding terminology
The term “grounded” indicates that one or more parts of electrical system are connected
to earth, which is considered to have zero voltage or potential. In some areas, the term
“earthing” is used instead of grounding.
A “grounded conductor” is a “current-carrying” conductor that normally carries current
and is also connected to earth. Examples are the “neutral” conductor in AC wiring and
the negative conductor in many DC systems. A “grounded system” is asystem in which
one of the current-carrying conductors is grounded.
An “equipment grounding conductor” is a conductor that does not normally carry current
(except under fault conditions) and is also connected to earth. It is used to connect the
exposed metal surfaces of electrical equipment together and then to ground. Examples
are the bare copper conductor in power cords in porable equipment. These equipment-
grounding conductors help to prevent electric shock and allow over-current devices to
operate properly when groundfaults occur. The size of this conductor should be
coördinated with the size of the over-current devices involved.
A “grounding electrode” is the metallic device that is used to make actual contact with
the earth. Other types of grounding electrodes include metal water pipes and metal
building frames.
A “grounding electrode conductor” is the conductor between a common single grounding
point in the system and the grounding electrode.
“Bond” refers to the conection between the “grounded conductor”, the equipment
grounding” conductors and the “grounding electrode” conductor. Bonding is also used
to describe connecting all of the exposed metal surfaces together to complete the
equipment-groundin conductors.
AC POWER DISTRIBUTION AND GROUNDING
page 9
